Radio Antioch

This teaching is from the Radio Antioch Podcast Episode Six.

To watch a short video of this teaching, click the player above.

The next lesson from the desert is that of the provision of the Lord:  Each had enough, but none had too much. Why this supernatural intervention? Perhaps to teach them the concept that the Lord will provide for their needs, but not their greeds.

Concerning those who gathered much, I wonder if some wanted to sell to others so that they did not have to go out of the camp into the desert. I wonder if this was the beginning of Microwave Manna? We have your frozen Manna tacos here, just put these in your freezer and you don’t have to go out in the sun. Give us a few shekels and you can stay home! But seriously, the Lord did not allow them to collect too much, or have enough to sell, beyond the omer for each person in the family.

Lesson number four: You cannot have someone else do your interaction with God for you.

The Lord was showing these people that they had to depend upon Him daily for nourishment. The Lord had said that no one was to keep any until morning. But some paid no attention, and by morning the manna was full of maggots and began to smell. Moses was angry with them. I can hear him now: “Whoa what are you guys doing? You’ve stunk up the place!” Imagine the conversation between a man with a jar of rotting manna in his tent, trying to play it cool…His wife says “what’s that smell?” He answers “ Why, I don’t know, must be an evil wind from our that tent over there!” Soon everyone knew who had been disobedient. At first they probably tolerated it well enough, but after a while you can bet they let their feelings be known! “ Dude! Will you Pleeeease get rid of that stuff! Don’t you know it’s going to stink!
It probably took about a week for the people to come to understand, or at least for the women to get it: “what are you thinking! Get that stuff out of the tent!” If your wife did not give you an earful, then surely your neighbor did.

Lesson Number five:  Each person had to learn to depend upon the Lord daily for nourishment.
This is still true today. I believe that part of the reason that each family had to gather each day was so that they would learn to go to the Lord each day to be sustained. If they did not go out every day, they did not have what they needed. And you could not let somebody else gather for your family.
One of the biggest lies in history is the idea of clergy and laity. The whole idea that the Man of God is supposed to hear God for you, and that you are only supposed to receive from the preacher or priest is a lie from the pit of hell. Sure, the Lord has always used people like Moses, the Apostles and Prophets, Pastors and Teachers to speak to the people. But frequently these people are needed when the people are going astray, not listening to God, or totally oblivious to His leading. Remember in the Garden of Eden, where the Lord would walk with Man during the cool time of the day. He wanted to commune with Man day by day. The Apostles and the Prophets would have a whole lot less to do if the People would simply listen to God and obey. Think about it- How many of the messages from the prophets in the Old Testament were to people who were going astray? And half of the things that the Apostle Paul wrote about was correcting people’s stinking thinking. If people were listening to God, the church would need a whole lot less work.
But there is a mentality that the Holy man is supposed to hear God for you. Some groups even de-emphasize or discourage bible reading. Now, don’t misunderstand me- there is room for the Apostles and Prophets to build into the church, and there is room for a teacher to prepare a sermon to teach the saints. But think about how much more effective they would be if the church spent some time getting fed by God every day.
If you are not getting daily feeding from the Lord, through prayer, scripture or worship, you are undernourished. How many of you take vitamin pills? If you just take vitamin pills, but don’t eat any green stuff, are you getting all that you need? If you tried to live on cheeseburgers and vitamin pills, what would you look like? How healthy would you be? The vitamin pill helps to make sure you get things that you might be missing in your diet, but in no way is intended to be your entire nutrition. So you can enjoy this teaching, and then go to church on Sunday morning and get another serving, but if you never “eat” any of the things of God in between you are undernourished. Each believer should know how to hear God for themselves.
How do you do that? Reading the scriptures is a great way. A daily dose of Bible will help keep spiritual “flab” away. Don’t forget prayer. It is those times when you are quietly communing with God that He can drop revelation and understanding into your life. Personal worship is my favorite way of washing away the “slime” that a hard day leaves on you. Just put on some worship music, maybe at home, or in the car, and begin to worship. The troubles of the day, money, job, family will all fall into perspective as the presence of the Lord begins to permeate your mind, will and emotions.
If you are not getting your spiritual “manna” fresh each day, then it is not as nourishing. What happened after it was a day old? It started to go bad. If all you have to feed you spiritually is something you got a year ago, how fresh is your “manna”? It’s not. It might have some bugs in it….
This is a part of your life that you have to cultivate for yourself. You have to decide to get fresh manna from God each day, even if it is only ten minutes at a time. Ten minutes in the word, or ten minutes in prayer. Of course, some of you are much more mature than that, and are fully spiritually nourished. You can even convert the time you spend doing other things to spiritual time. I like to spend the first half of my commute to the office in worship, listening to the car stereo. When my spirit man is soft and teachable, I can turn it off and pray: “Lord, how am I doing today? Is there anything we need to talk about before I get to the office? How is my attitude? How is my heart? What would you have me do?” It is amazing how this will transform your day. At the end of a day, I may be exhausted. But just a chapter in the Bible can help put things in perspective. I end up saying “Thank you Lord, I know that you were with me today.”
One of the marks of a truly mature believer in Christ is the consistency of their time with God. Not everyone is called to serve in church, or be a missionary. But all believers should know their God and spend daily time with Him.

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